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11 Independent Field Squadron Royal Engineers - Building Fort Tapong Airstrip - Part 2

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Subject :11 Independent Field Squadron Royal Engineers - Building Fort Tapong Airstrip - Part 2
Published By : None 
Location : Perak
Estimated Year : 1959
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Richard Clarke, UK
Remark : The Pictures show, from left to right:

  • 1 section evening meal outside of Basha's (their 'home from home') at Fort Tapong before going down to river for a bath. Richard Clarke, our donor is in the middle of the three.

    Richard joined the Royal Engineers as a boy soldier in 1953 at the age of fifteen. At eighteen he joined the men and was trained as a Combat Engineer, after this he was posted to a Port Unit as a volunteer "Army Frogman" and joined a small team of Divers working around the UK on various military assignments.

    In 1957 he volunteered for active service and was posted to Malaya to join 11 Independent Field Squadron based at Butterworth for three years. He remembers that:

    "Out my total twelve years in the army Malaya was the best time".

    After Malaya he was sent to the training camp for the engineers as an instructor for two years, and then to the Army Plant School to train as a plant operator on earth moving machines. On completion of the training he was posted to Germany, in a Combat Field Squadron, as plant section NCO.

    While in Germany he met his 'wife to be' Heidi, left the army in 1964 and joined the Forestry Commission being retrained as a Fitter Welder on Plant.

    Now (in 2009) retired, 72 years old, enjoying life and still happily married to Heidi with three children and five grandchildren, he is very active in the organisation of Squadron reunions.

  • Richard's Basha, he recalls:

    "My Basha at Fort Tapong in 1959. We slept like this for about four weeks at a time. The bed we had to get made ourselves by the camp tailor, from canvas, or you slept on the ground! Not advisable in the jungle. You kept your weapon's always to hand on your bed, for you never knew when you might need them."

  • A supply drop. All the Squadron's supplies came in this way about one a week. It was a worrying time if the aircraft didn't arrive or missed the dropping zone.

    • To go to Part 1, click here.

    To read more about Jungle Forts and Airstrips, click here.

    To read more about 11 Independent Field Squadron Royal Engineers, click here.

    Filename : 20090726-008